I know it's cliche, but . . .

. . . sometimes my job is really rewarding! Teaching dance is, obviously, generally more rewarding than helping struggling students with their school work. But every once in a while, it just clicks and being an aide is pretty fulfilling. All week long I have been trying to motivate a young man, who we shall call Reginald, to take this test that's really hard for him. Reginald would rant about hating school, hating tests, hating just about everything, wanting to completely give up and drop out of school. It's also difficult because at CMS they have "Core" class for two periods in a row which covers all things "English" --reading, language arts, grammar, etc. I only go to one of those two classes, and the work usually overlaps from one class to the next. 
But Friday was Egypt day for the sixth graders, and all they were doing was playing Bingo. So I left and headed to Reggie's first English class period. All I did was sit down next to him. He wasn't really paying attention, of course, but I was able to get him to copy down some notes that he had neglected to take earlier. Right before their break they were assigned an essay which they would be working on for the next period. I asked Reggie to think of his topic. They could pick "My Worst" or "How to". He was back before the break was even over and had a great idea. We went into the back room and Reggie made some great progress with brainstorming. Then he changed his mind on his topic, but was verbalizing a lot of great ideas for it. We did a super quick outline and then he worked for the rest of the period. He got so much done and we didn't have to fight about it at all! I was so proud of him! He said he'd even work on it over the weekend, as they were assigned, so we'll see how he does!